Note from the editor:
As most of you know we have quit a little zoo here in our classroom at Malcolm Elliot Elementary. The students in room 325 have been doing a marvelous job adding to and maintaining our award winning collection of classroom pets this year. With the money we won in the statewide 4H competition we bought a computer complete with Microsoft Works so that we could create this informative letter for parents and community members, informing them of the condition of our furry and scaly friends.

Our turtle collection is doing fine, aside from the usual shell fungus and small health problems. The Red Eared Sliders just keep making babies and we are up to 12 of them. We are very fortunate to have received a rare and endangered Desert Tortoise all the way from California.
Cont. on page 2
Turtles. from page 1
The Harold's picked it up for
us when they were just there on their vacation.

Classroom Pets

By: Juan Gonzalez EDIT490

Volume 1, Issue 1

October 2001

By: Juan Gonzalez

Revised by Juan Gonzalez
Well, the Boa Constrictor is still missing. But the good news is that the janitor hasn't had to set a rattrap in the entire two moths since it disappeared. The class did a math activity to estimate it's size now, based on a diet of classroom rodents it must be catching, and we figure it is about eight feet long. If any kids disappear we'll start searching in earnest for it. Let's hope it doesn't eat our computer's mouse!

By: Juan Gonzalez
Kemi Salomon brought us a beautiful big toad from her vacation in Nashville so we put it in the aquarium with all the frogs and salamanders. Nobody knew what kind it was, so we went to look it
up over the long weekend. It looked like it might be an African!
frog. The book said this kind of frog was eating up all the wildlife it could get its teeth into since it
Cont. on page 3
Frogs... from page 2
was introduced into the United States.
Sure enough, when we got back to
school it was the only thing in the
aquarium, but it had grown
to an impressive size!

By Juan Gonzalez
The llamas have been doing wonderfully, despite the crowded conditions. We take care of them very well because the kids love them since we were able to make everyone a new pair of mittens for the winter out of their wool. As you know, it is those mittens that won us the $100,000 in the 4H contest. Becky Ford wrote this about our llamas recently:
I love our llamas. It is very nice when they come up and want to know what we are doing in our activity centers. The other day one of them ate my arithmetic book, but that is ok because I don't like arithmetic. I will be sad if one eats my floppy disk because I like the computer. The smell is not really that bad, except when it is real hot. Then the flies come.

We want to thank all our benefactors. Without your greatly appreciated donations of pets, time and money we wouldn't have such a wonderful little zoo! Again, thank you very much!